For Humpty Doo bus driver Trevor Murdie, there’s nothing better than being number one.
It’s the feeling Trevor relishes when he sees his car cross the finish line first and his driver standing on the winning podium.
“It’s exciting and there’s nothing like it,” he says.
Trevor owns Murdie Brothers Motorsport, a family-run, small budget speedway team, based out of Darwin.
What started out as a father and son venture has now grown to include the whole Murdie family, with both his sons, daughter and wife involved now too.
The Murdies own two cars – one a speed car nicknamed ‘Midget’, because it’s half a V8 engine in a four-cylinder vehicle, and a Wingless, which races in one of the fastest growing classes in the country.
“I’ve never raced myself; my son Johnathon drives one car and we put a driver in the other, but I really enjoy watching,” Trevor said. “As a spectator sport, it’s a real adrenalin rush.”
While the pandemic put the brakes on races in 2019, the Murdies most recently fuelled up and raced the Midget in Toowoomba on November 20.
A former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) chef, Trevor has been working with Buslink for two years, driving both urban and school bus runs.
“They’re nice hours – I like them. I’m not going to give them up in a hurry” he said.
“I enjoy it. I don’t usually work weekends, and I’m home at a decent hour, so I can always work on the cars with the kids in the evening. There’s not a great amount of work to be done on them, it’s mostly just maintenance unless you bend or break something.”
Due to COVID restrictions, most of this year’s Darwin meets were cancelled and a small competition was held from May to October, largely in Katherine, a seven-hour, 640km round trip.
“Everyone travelled down to support them. We competed in Katherine about half a dozen times including the season finale (October 9),” he said.
To follow Murdie Brothers Motorsports race to Facebook and Instagram.
